For 1980s social values, definitely Sam Newman and Brian Taylor.

That’d disqualify Kane Cornes, Rhyce Shaw, Dylan Grimes and big Aaron but the three Jacks would remain a good fit! Tyrone, Mitch, Dustin and Clint sound like they come from a cowboy film.

I’d be concerned about their leadership. Tex doesn’t seem to have the maturity to be captain, and that says something about the lack of alternatives. Dangerfield sometimes steps up when Adelaide are on the back foot but how committed will he be to Adelaide this year?

Enright epitomised Geelong’s triple premiership era, letting his footy do the talking. Champion.

Perry that’s a great list. I agree with you about Ziebell, Cunnington and Howe. Howe’s great to watch. I’m surprised Dawson, could make it in any era, with his spindly frame and fumbling tendencies but it’s a credit to his discipline and nous that he’s slotted in to two of the best teams of the past 7 years.

I’d argue Mitchell’s skills equip him well for the modern midfield, especially in an era where precision passing is paramount. Seems like he makes up for his lack of leg speed by having one of the fastest brains in the comp.

And yes, that was a slip re Pickering. I meant Liam Picken, the Bulldog who was round-armed last year by Ablett.

Agreed there’s something very Dermott Brereton about Tex. And now they’ve made him captain?!!

We’ve got some of the AFL’s best young talent but young blokes need a core of good senior players to learn from and to give the team stability both during a game and across a season. We’ve been losing our senior players at a rate of knots since Buckley took over, and some of those left (ie. Cloke, Reid and Swanny) need to deal with their own worries instead of being beacons of leadership. Besides Pendlebury, and maybe Sidebottom and Cloke, I can’t see where the leadership is gonna come from this season.

I actually still think Maxwell had another year in him, just providing leadership down back.

Jax, I haven’t seen the stats but much more of the game was played in the Lions’ forward half than in the Swans’ forward half. And the Lions’ midfield were clearly fitter, which showed up in their ability to flood back across half back. The Swans had an amazing number of turnovers across their half forward line. Stephan Martin looked to be the best ruck on the ground.

Jack all your points are valid. But some things you can learn from NAB games are:
– fitness levels of various players;
– which particular tactics they’re trying out (I’d suggest most tactics adopted in March are not just experimental but are key planks of their 2015 game plan);
– a sense of how various young blokes are progressing

Dougie, just following up a couple of your comments.

Not sure an astute lawyer is needed to make sure a coaching contract includes “clauses that specified a termination payout amount if termination was made early”. Basic business sense or common sense should be enough. Whatever was needed, Essendon’s management didn’t have it when they organised Hird’s contract. Anyway, good for the Bulldogs members that their management were better prepared. McCartney must be looking across at Hird and spitting chips.

Regarding “how Sydney perform after the next couple of years”, I dunno whether the COLA is being phased out or cut suddenly but either way, I’m surprised that the Swans managed to hang on to so many midfielders during the trade period. If you were Brandon Jack, Tom Mitchell, Zak Jones, Harry Cunningham or even any of the more experienced midfielders, you could be excused for seeking more money or an easier spot in a starting 22 at another club. And Swans management could have been excused for offering some up as trade bait to find a replacement rebounder for Malceski and the ageing Shaw, but they didn’t do that either. Not sure if that’s blind loyalty or blind confidence.

As for Buddy, he turns 28 next January and seems to be getting better with age, so let’s back him for at least 4 more years of top footy. It might even be lights out for the Bulldogs, Demons or Saints before it’s lights out for Lance!

Perry thanks for your detailed analysis of North Melbourne. I actually think North came out of the trade period badly.

I was dubious about North recruiting Del Santo last year, given they already had Wells and Harvey as less physical types in the midfield. Now they’ve also recruited Higgins, who’s another less physical midfielder and they were even considering Cooney, who’d be a fifth less physical midfielder. Hard to fathom.

I still think if they wanna threaten for a premiership in 2015 or 2016, they can only have one non-physical midfielder at most in their midfield at any one time, plus two other more physical types. Swallow and Ziebell provide good physicality but you need a third in-and-under player for rotations and to cover for injuries. Levi Greenwood was the best candidate for the third in-and-under midfielder but you’ve tragically lost him, so it’ll probably come down to Bastinac or Adams.

You might be better off quickly grooming one of these two, or someone else, to be a tagger. Wells, Higgins or Del Santo could easily slot into a half back flank (or both half back flanks), where they could give you ‘Hawthorn-like’ rebounding power. But I still don’t think you’ll win enough clearances in the big games.

With smarter recruitment/ trading, North could have had a dangerous midfield. Instead, they’ve ended up with too much skill and not enough physicality.

Winston most Swans midfielders are actually not that heavy by AFL standards (see the weights above). I think the strength of the Swans midfield in 2014 was not their physical size but the number of good midfielders pressuring for a spot in there. This contributed to a high level of consistency from Swans midfielders throughout the year because if they weren’t consistent, there’d be Brandon Jack, Tom Mitchell, Ryan O’Keefe etc ready to replace them. Even to have Craig Bird in the green vest and Jared McVeigh at half back in the GF shows how many good midfielders the Swans had available.

I agree there are other midfields that are less physical than the Swans (the bottom two thirds of the ladder is full of them). But in 2015, the Swans will come up against the Power, Hawks and Dockers, all of whom have a more physical midfield presence. If these midfields can block the Swans’ supply to Buddy and Tippett, the Swans will once again struggle to win a premiership.

There are high expectations for Brisbane’s midfield in 2015 but I think they’ll be a bit too reliant on Rockliffe when the going gets physical in the midfield. Zorko, Beams and Rich rely more on skill than physicality, and I dunno what’s happening with Brent Moloney.

Regarding Essendon, I agree Watson’s absences in 2014 cost them games, but the absences also helped Heppell take on more responsibility, so now they’ve got two physical presences, plus Hocking as a big-bodied tagger. Not bad but in 2015 they’ll struggle in the ruck dept.

Is it the same guy at Collingwood in charge of recruiting raw youngsters that’s also in charge of recruiting from other clubs? The former seems to be doing a great job. The latter seems to have no idea.

Amazing the amount of discussion that’s been generated by Melbourne losing form for a month. Seems pretty knee-jerk. In mid-season, everybody was berating the Tigers’ coach and praising the Demons. Now suddenly the Tigers’ early bad form was not Dimma’s fault, and there’s talk of merging the Demons. Maybe we supporters are more fickle than the Demons players. Our opinions can change dramatically over just a few weekends.

And whether you like him or not, he has influence because he’s a commentator on mainstream tv. That’s more influential than radio commentating and paid tv commentating, and maybe more influential than the written media, because so many people hear his voice. His values and interpretations do influence some viewers. That’s why the tv network cops flak when he makes politically incorrect comments.

Incidentally, I considered taking year zero back to 1979 so I could squeeze in Neil Balme, who still plays a prominent role at Geelong. But if I did that, I would have had to leave out BT!

If I were an umpire this weekend, my eyes would be on Picken and McCaffer, probably the two dirtiest taggers in the game at the moment. No accident that both Harvey and Ablett got frustrated with Picken.

Hi Andy and Hutcho. Yeah, this is a highly debatable one. The year 1965 probably had an enormous influence on 1980s and 1990s footy, producing many of the stars of that era and setting in motion the poaching that has become common ever since. And 1987 or, as Hutcho suggests – 1992, could be the ‘year zero’ for the nationalisation of our game.

My article was probably more about how so many key footy people of 2014 could be traced back to the early 1980s, rather than broader aspects like the strategies and administration circa 2014. Finding the ‘year zero’ for today’s strategies and administration would be even more controversial, but probably a lot of fun if anyone wanted to try.

Jake you raise a good point about Geelong’s luck with father-son picks. But Geelong’s only the most glaring example of where a ‘develop your list rather than recruit from other clubs’ model has reaped rewards. Collingwood won the 2010 flag with only one significant recruit (Jolly, with minor roles played by Luke Ball and Leigh Brown) and the Saints and Dockers have recently reached GFs without recruiting significantly from other clubs.

You’d have to conclude both models can deliver a flag, though I agree the Hawks-Swans model is the quicker path, if a team’s salary cap can fit in expensive recruits.

I think Paul D is right. Nick you probably could have praised the Hawks’ recruiters a lot more because overall they’ve been very effective.

In fact, it’s interesting that the 2nd and 3rd most dominating clubs of recent years (Hawks and Swans) have achieved success by recruiting extensively from other clubs. If it hadn’t been for Geelong’s amazing ongoing success, we’d all be saying that the Hawthorn-Swans recruitment model is the way to go.

Tiarne those are interesting thoughts for the Pies’ recruiters. Certainly Garlett has time to turn his career around and his performance this year suggests he might be better off moving. But the Pies, like Carlton, have some emerging small forwards and reforming wayward players is not one of Buckley’s strengths. The best move for Garlett would be back to WA or possibly to Queensland. The Eagles or Suns could do with him.

In addition to Luke Ball, Taylor Adams and Josh Thomas who play a similar role to Robinson, the Pies have Jaryd Blair. They don’t need another of that type. Robinson’s unlikely to improve in skill or concentration but he could become more consistent. To do this I’m not sure whether he needs a club that’s stricter or gives him more responsibility, but a move would give him a chance of improving. Right now he’s stuck in a rut.

That leaves Waite. Because he’s injury-prone, he’s not a player to base a structure around but he could be a useful 2nd tall option for a team in contention next year. That’s more likely to be Essendon, North or the Dockers than the Pies.

McLachlan should ask the more innovative coaches, like Roos and Lyon, how they plan to get around any new rules. No use introducing more changes if Roos and Lyon can just find new methods to make the game ultra-defensive.

Ronan, if you’re gonna make such a controversial statement as ‘Hardwick…..has failed in all but one season since joining Richmond in 2009’, you gotta back it up with an explanation. Some people would argue that Hardwick has been the most successful Richmond coach of the last 20 years.

Franko now you’re being misleading. I said the last 5 games – so that means Rd 21-23 plus the 2 finals. See those stats at http://www.fanfooty.com.au/players/year.php?firstname=Chad&surname=Wingard&year=2013

Wingard was a great small forward in 2013 but currently wouldn’t be listed in the top 30 most influential players in the AFL. He could potentially get there. Let’s hope Butcher improves, and doesn’t have a repeat year.

Neade, Jonas, and Moore could improve and give Port slight improvement, but they are not going to win games for you in 2013 (and they’ll be balanced out by the decline of Cornes and Cassisi). I agree Hartlett could have a big impact if he learns to deal with taggers.

Franko we’re in agreement that Boak and Westhoff were great in 2013, but if you want the Power to improve in 2014, you gotta identify where the improvement is gonna come from. I can’t see much room for improvement besides Wingard and Butcher.

Will concede Wingard played fine in the 2013 finals series (averaging 1.5 goals and 19 possessions), but note that over the year he averaged over 22 possessions per game from rounds 1-19, then dropped to 18.2 possessions in the last 5 games. As a young bloke with real talent, he’s one that could improve in 2014.

Pies, Roos, Melbourne and Bombers all look like they’ll improve more than Port in 2014 (more up-and-coming talent), and at least two of those will finish above you.

Jack and Franko, thanks for at least writing about footy…..but….

If someone misses the year with injury, we can safely say they’ve had a bad year. That’s surely not controversial.

Wingard had a great year but trailed off towards the end, including in the finals. Boak, Westoff and others had great years too but I can’t see much room for improvement in those guys. Butcher has for a couple of years shown flashes, and indeed injury has been one reason why he hasn’t shown more. So Wingard and Butcher are two who could improve in 2014.

You’ve got two good coaches over there in SA, but not much hope in 2014.

My computer program has a better sense of humour than Milo and David.

Agreed Crows have started 2014 badly, but think I Vince, Henderson and Van Berlo are replaceable (Crows still have Sloane, Thompson and Dangerfield in the midfield). They just need Tex to give them a good target up front.

Am actually hoping the Swans and Hawks struggle. Then it’ll be a very evenly contested season.